For Mark Lallak, the evolution of 911 is personal. He watched it happen in real time from behind the dispatch console.

When Lallak was working as a 911 telecommunicator in the ’90s, most calls came from landlines. Because the phone numbers were associated with fixed locations, dispatchers had a name and address associated with each phone number. If someone called in, first responders almost always knew where they needed to go.

Then as cell phones emerged, everything changed.

“The location tracking on mobile phones was absolutely horrendous,” Lallak said, recalling the early years of wireless 911 calls. “With landlines, dispatchers usually had clear, reliable location information. That completely disappeared with cell phones.”

For the people answering those calls, it was a major shift that happened faster than anyone could have predicted.

“By the time mobile phones could fit in your hand, it just exploded,” Lallak said. “We went from 99 percent of our calls coming from landlines to about 50 percent in a five-year period.”

Today, wireless calls are the new norm. In 2025, about 87 percent of 911 calls in Minnesota came from cell phones. People call from cars, boats, trails and countless other places where emergencies happen. It’s much easier to call 911 today than ever before — and that flexibility is a good thing. But it also created new challenges for dispatchers and first responders.

In the early days of cell phone calls to 911, dispatch centers often had to rely on cell tower triangulation to estimate a caller’s location. Dispatchers can’t identify someone based on a cell phone number like they could with landlines. If a caller could not speak, hung up or lost connection, responders might have to search a broad area, often as big as a square mile or more. 

When someone needs emergency help, every minute counts. Searching an entire square mile can mean significant time wasted in the event of a crisis or medical emergency. 

Curtis Carlson, who works with 911 mapping and routing technology for our Emergency Communication Networks (ECN) division of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), explained how technology has improved significantly since the ’90s. 

“Nowadays, when a caller dials 911, the latitude and longitude coordinates from their cell phone are usually shared with the system,” Carlson said. “That information can help responders get to the right place faster.”

While this process works better today than before, there is room for improvement. In some parts of greater Minnesota, calls may still be routed based on cell tower triangulation instead of a caller’s GPS coordinates. That can lead to delays or extra transfers, especially near county borders.

ECN is working to improve the 911 system through Next Generation 911, or NG911. The current network in Minnesota has been in place since 1982 and relies on outdated copper telecommunication lines. In partnership with telecom service providers across the state, ECN is upgrading the network to fiber optic cable. The upgraded system will allow callers to text photos and videos and even share data from unexpected sources like smartwatches and vehicles. 

But according to Lallak, now a 911 operational coordinator under contract with ECN, one of the biggest benefits of NG911 is better location accuracy.

“People often ask us why we need NextGen 911,” he said. “I always say it’s about ensuring we get first responders to the exact location of the scene without wasting any time.”

Today’s cell phones are highly advanced and have the capability of sharing more information than Minnesota’s 911 system was built to receive. NG911 will close that gap. By using geographic information system (GIS) data, the new system will be able to identify a caller’s location using exact coordinates or validated address data and route it to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP).

For Lallak, seeing all of this progress is meaningful. From experiencing the emergence of cell phones as a 911 dispatcher to now working behind the scenes on the transition to NG911, he has seen emergency telecommunications evolve over the span of his career — but the goal has always remained the same.

“Ninety-five percent of emergency calls are from people that just need help,” Lallak said. “At the end of the day, all folks want to know is that 911 services are available and will arrive as soon as possible.”